A 90-YEAR-old woman was cheated out of £8,000 by scammers claiming to be from the police.

Last Thursday at around 11am the woman, who lives alone in Kingstone, received a call from a man who said he was DC Smith from Hammersmith Police Station giving shoulder number EK265.

He told her he had people in custody and that he was doing checks into fraudulent activity at local banks.

The victim asked how she could check he was genuine and he said to call him back on 161 which she did, but without clearing the line first.

She then spoke to another man who said DC Smith was genuine and transferred the call back to him.

He asked the victim to keep the line open, checked she had no mobile phone and no-one was due to visit.

He established she had accounts with Lloyds and Halifax and told her to withdraw cash from both because he said staff were corrupt and police needed the banknotes to be able to check for fingerprints.

The victim agreed to get £5,500 out of Lloyds and £2,500 out of Halifax.

As briefed by "DC Smith" she told the bank the money was for her daughter and that the police had not asked her to get it. She returned home at around 4pm.

The fraudster was still on the open phone line and he asked her to read the bank note numbers for 10 notes from Halifax and another 10 notes from Lloyds. An hour later he was back on the phone stating two notes from Halifax and six notes from Lloyds were fake so he said he would send a plain clothes officer to collect the money.

He said the password was “disruptive” and the officer would know this, so the victim could be sure she was handing the package to the right person.

At about 7.30pm the lady answered her front door and there was an Asian man there.

The woman asked if he was there for the package and he confirmed this, and then gave her the password so she gave him the package containing £8,000. Throughout this the lady was still on the phone to DC Smith (this line having been open since 11am).

He said he would call back before 12pm on February 23 to update her. Instead the victim told a neighbour who happened to attend her home and she told the lady's daughter, and police were called.

The next day the fraudsters called back while the daughter was at the home. If you have any information regarding this incident call police on 101.